American artist and author Michele Oka Doner’s ‘Three Torsos’, of porcelain and acrylic, achieved the highest price of $25,200, breaking her previous record for a ceramic work. Other of her sculptures also sold: ‘Pod’ for $2,350, ‘Totem with Five Masks’ for $4,993.75, and ‘Bust’ for $6,000.

Michael Lucero’s ceramic and acrylic wool ‘Elf with Puppy’ figure sold for $11,750, and the grotesque carnival figures of Sergei Isupov also did well, ‘Floating’ and ‘Rotation’ selling for $7,637.50 each.

Georges Jeanclos’ horror-inspired ‘Grande Urne I’, two figures seeming to simultaneously grow from and be enveloped by a tall pillar of Terra Cotta, sold for $14,100.

The vividly colourful plates of Ralph Bacerra were also firm favourites, ‘Untitled Charger’ selling for $11,750 and ‘Untitled Square Charger with Birds’ for $8,812.50.

A glazed stoneware piece by Rudy Autio, the voluptuous statue ‘Elysian Fields’, sold for $12,043.75.

Peter Voulkos’s deconstructed pot, the abstract ‘Bucket’, sold for $8,7812,50, and his more structured ‘Lidded Vessel’ for $9,987.50.

Aside from these top sellers, there were numerous pieces than were sold for just a few hundred pounds, sometimes less. Cowan’s Modern and Contemporary Ceramics auctions present opportunities to collect new and sometimes as yet little known works, of extreme beauty and innovation, for very little money. These are sure to increase in value as time goes on, as the artists become more widely known and appreciated, and in themselves are stunning objects to own.